Kokanee without a downrigger?

[Team Mc Fishing]

As for the question of jigging for them, we do that as well but my primary lake of fishing for them is New Melones and as big as that body of water is, trolling and marking bait balls is a good way to start looking for them. When I want to jig for them I use things like the smaller P-Line Laser Minnows in silver and blue and pink colors and toss them out and let them fall back towards the boat lifting and following them down to let them flutter like wounded minnows. I actually take my kokanee trolling rods with the line counters and drop the jigs slowly also right into the depth of those bait balls and stir them up a little causing the bait to scatter and when the Kokanee see the wounded bait presentation they move in for an easy lunch. Like Don said also, we catch the Kokanee as a good source of food since the Kokanee are planted and pen raised by organizations that release them into the lakes for that purpose. No reason for one of those C&R arguments here. When you get into a good Kokanee bite you have the chance to catch more fish than you can imagine in a day so releasing any that are brought in unharmed is no problem and the ons that you keep are going to taste good on the smoker. I am by far an xpert on these Kokanee, I have grown up fishing for everything but Trout has been a big part of my fishing experience. These Kokanee are a new found obsession for me the past few years and I am learning more about them every season.

[Jfitalia]

Oh my, looks like we might be drifting into the catch & release concept territory, not my intention at all. Tony asked for suggestions on alternatives to downriggers. I pointed out sinker releases are available, but did not recommend he use them, it is his call. When lead weights are banned I will quit using them. Again, I think that if there was any credible evidence they created a hazard lead weights would have been banned many years ago. Just my opinion and last word on the subject. Any further discussion probably won't change anybody's mind on anything anyway.

Paul T

there is no catch and release debate going on.... we're talking about the difference of using a downrigger and sinker releases

[CRABBY]

Oh my, looks like we might be drifting into the catch & release concept territory, not my intention at all. Tony asked for suggestions on alternatives to downriggers. I pointed out sinker releases are available, but did not recommend he use them, it is his call. When lead weights are banned I will quit using them. Again, I think that if there was any credible evidence they created a hazard lead weights would have been banned many years ago. Just my opinion and last word on the subject. Any further discussion probably won't change anybody's mind on anything anyway.

Paul T

LOL,Paul you don't have to worry to much about C&R stuff on Koke's most eat em.
But to the Q of not using a D-rigger,in the winter an spring you can get way with lead core line,when summer comes an the lower foothill lakes warm up you have to get down deeper an that's where a rigger comes in handy,as Doug (Team MC Fishing)stated those shuttle Hawks work well for many,they use your rigger line an follow it down,any cheap manual rigger will work with them,even fishbuckets homemade rig.In late summer it's not unusual to be 70/100 feet deep +.
Your other option is to fish at very high altitude lakes where a lot of the kokes generally stay within leadcore range.otherwise get a Downrigger...Don

[ptnt11085]

I would much rather use a downrigger than messing with sinker releases. They tend to be a pain in the butt to use and I dont want to be dropping lead weights all over the bottom of my favorite lakes. Plus what happens if you get into a hot kokanee or trout bite and your hooking 15 or 20 fish. You mean to tell me I need to carry 15-20 weights around with me? No thanks! I'd rather carry 1 downrigger weight

Oh my, looks like we might be drifting into the catch & release concept territory, not my intention at all. Tony asked for suggestions on alternatives to downriggers. I pointed out sinker releases are available, but did not recommend he use them, it is his call. When lead weights are banned I will quit using them. Again, I think that if there was any credible evidence they created a hazard lead weights would have been banned many years ago. Just my opinion and last word on the subject. Any further discussion probably won't change anybody's mind on anything anyway.

Paul T

[Jfitalia]

I thought about that too. I figured that if the EPA and associated agencies had a shred of evidence they would have banned lead sinkers years ago as they did with lead shot. I did a search on the subject and found a few states that banned lead sinkers of something like 1/4 ounce or smaller. I guess their concern was sinkers smaller than that might be injested by birds? I used downriggers for many years and hated them. I suppose some lead downrigger weights are on the bottom also? Another search of the Fish & Game site turned up nothing on sinker releases so I assume they are not illegal? Maybe some chemical engineering person could tell us how much lead is leached off of all the dead tire weights along the highways
or from sinkers in the lakes? Many years ago I remember a proposed ban on 2 strokes on any body of water that eventually ended up in a municipal water supply. It didn't pass but it is probably just a matter of time.

Paul T

I would much rather use a downrigger than messing with sinker releases. They tend to be a pain in the butt to use and I dont want to be dropping lead weights all over the bottom of my favorite lakes. Plus what happens if you get into a hot kokanee or trout bite and your hooking 15 or 20 fish. You mean to tell me I need to carry 15-20 weights around with me? No thanks! I'd rather carry 1 downrigger weight

[ptnt11085]

thanks Paul, but i dont like to throw lead all willy nilly around the lake.
My set-up works perfect.

I thought about that too. I figured that if the EPA and associated agencies had a shred of evidence they would have banned lead sinkers years ago as they did with lead shot. I did a search on the subject and found a few states that banned lead sinkers of something like 1/4 ounce or smaller. I guess their concern was sinkers smaller than that might be injested by birds? I used downriggers for many years and hated them. I suppose some lead downrigger weights are on the bottom also? Another search of the Fish & Game site turned up nothing on sinker releases so I assume they are not illegal? Maybe some chemical engineering person could tell us how much lead is leached off of all the dead tire weights along the highways
or from sinkers in the lakes? Many years ago I remember a proposed ban on 2 strokes on any body of water that eventually ended up in a municipal water supply. It didn't pass but it is probably just a matter of time.

Paul T

[FishWisher]

Whatever happened to jigging? When I visit my pal in Oregon we always jig for kokanee. Just find some deep fish on your screen, kill the motor, drop a koke jig down to about that depth and have at it! It can be more fun than trolling when the fish are biting!

[fishbucket]

thanks Paul, but i dont like to throw lead all willy nilly around the lake.
My set-up works perfect.

[ptnt11085]

Early season kokes will be in the 20-30 ft range.. as the summer comes on you'll need to get down to 40-50 feet.

Early can be done with a jet diver or bananna weights, but it's alot of gear for a 16" koke with a soft mouth.

An easy way to make it down to the depth is with a string, a clip and a 4-6# weight. Boiled down, thats all a DR is.


I use this in my kayak.


You could easly mark a string at 10' intervals (what I did) and send your line clipped onto the ball weight. Tie off the string at depth.. and .. bingo Bango... you're koke fishing !

Good luck to you and your boy

You might want to consider this:

Luhr Jensen - - Sinker Release

They used to make a smaller version for fresh water fishing. 3 ounce weights cost about fifty cents each:

Home Page

If you troll slowly 3 ounces will get you down to about 60 feet without too much line out. If you want to go deeper 6 ounce works well. A Google search fro "sinker releases" shows other types.

Paul T

[Team Mc Fishing]

There are also rail mount manual downriggers if you have a rail for about $60 each and if you are worried about cranking up and down we use a shuttle hawk device for even our electric riggers to save wear and tear on those motors. If you want to learn about som techniques you can always get a day on the water with a guide and ask a ton of questions. You can learn alot by being an active passenger in a guide boat versus just waiting ro reel one in. I use everything from toplines to downriggers and even side planers which are not widely used around here. If you need any help setting up some stuff let me know. I can show you some setups that will get you started on the Kokanee obsession.